School Board News Today, an online publication of NSBA, provides timely and relevant stories and analysis from NSBA and other news outlets to school board members, administrators, and all others interested in K-12 education.

Articles tagged with Paul Tough

If you could see my office, you’d know how much I love books. They line my window sill and shelves, and they’re stacked up in piles on my floor. One of the best things about being managing editor of American School Board Journalis that I receive lots and lots of books from publishers.

As much as I like getting and reading through books, it’s always hard to choose the best education books of the year for school leaders. A majority of the books that come to my office are workbooks for teachers – useful, to be sure, but not appropriate for our readers.

Most school board members are not professional educators, but they know much more than the average citizen. They straddle the professional and the laymen worlds, and so the books that we choose for our list must reflect this. We choose books that tell stories, start conversations, or give you insight to help you do your job.

Our newest list includes the latest offerings from longtime education writers Jonathan Kozol and Lisa Delpit, writing about race and poverty. Paul Tough, who wrote Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America, is back with another book, this time on how schools and other institutions can help even the poorest children overcome the challenges of poverty.

I’m a very busy man. I’ve got a debt ceiling to worry about. No, actually, I’ve got a story to finish, and a meeting to go to, and tomorrow we’re taking our kids to Colonial Williamsburg. Really early. But not as early as it was for my elder daughter’s class trip a few weeks ago, when she traveled to the same destination. The buses left the elementary school parking lot at 7 a.m., for a three-hour trip. Several classes of fourth graders. On a bus. For three hours. One way. My neighbor volunteered to chaperone; and, yes, he is a saint.

Anne O’Brien, blogging for The Learning First Alliance, comments on the recent back-and-forth between Times Columnist David Brooks and education historian Diane Ravitch, as well as Brooks’ penchant for falling for the “reformers” versus “establishment” construct. I don’t have to tell you what he means by these terms (or why they’re off base).

In The Quick and the Ed, Richard Lee Colvin writes an illuminating blog about the cheating scandal in the Atlanta schools and how to recover from what could only be described as an educational tragedy. (The two responses are also worth reading.)

And finally, back to Ravitch again, but this time in lighter vein: Read The Answer Sheet’s Valerie Strauss on “Ravitch Rage” and its symptoms.